Orbit issue 94 (June 2012)

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Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 94 June 2012

Change Afoot The past few months have been challenging ones for the Society, with the ramifications of the death of our long serving Treasurer Harvey Duncan. Harvey had realised during his first spell in hospital late last year that he would be unable to continue in office given his illness and this enabled the Society to appoint a new officer to that role, whose work will be known to you as she—Eve, my wife—has also been the designer of our front covers for several years and her work there much appreciated and praised. Eve being an accountant by profession will find the role of Treasurer no great challenge.

Patron: Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

COMMITTEE Chair : Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow, Scotland G61 1RX (E-mail: mmorris671@aol.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset BS23 4RE (E-mail : b.lockyer365@btinternet.com)

Hon .Treasurer:

As a result of the above, the Committee has agreed that we need to make changes to our banking to allow members new ways of paying their subscriptions and this has required a change of bank.

Eve Archer, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Mosstodloch, Moray.

Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: evearcher9@aol.com)

Orbit : Editor Margaret Morris, 80 years young in 2011, has been a tower of strength during the first part of the year with advice and deeds following Harvey’s death. But being our Chairman is but one of many roles she plays—as she is much in demand across the world as a distinguished philatelist - and she has said that she would like to relinquish the Chair to let a younger member take over.

Full details of who our new Chairman is going to be will be given in our next edition, along with other news relating to the Society’s need to “Buck the Trend” and to start to grow again.

We look forward to your continuing support in this matter.

Jeff Dugdale, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Mosstodloch, Moray.

Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

Webmaster Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Road, Walkington, Dublin 12 (E-mail: dclarke36@gmail.com)

Postal Auction Organiser: David Saunders, 42 Burnet Road, Bradwell, Great Yarmouth. NR31 8SL. (E-mail davidsaunders1@hotmail.co.uk)

Overseas Representatives: Australia: Charles Bromser, 37 Bridport Street, Melbourne 3205.

Belgium : Jűrgen P. Esders, Rue Paul Devigne 21-27, Boite 6, 1030 Bruxelles Eire:Derek Clarke, 36 Cherryfield Rd, Walkinstown. Dublin 12.

France: Jean-Louis Lafon, 23 Rue de Mercantour, 78310 Maurepas Russia: Mikhail Vorobyov, 31-12 Krupskaya Str, Kostroma United States: Dr Ben Ramkissoon, Linda Valley Villa #236 11075 Benton Street Loma Linda CA 92354-3182

ASSS website at URL: http://www.astrospacestampsociety.com/ astrospacestampsociety@gmail.com ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Members in UK—£15

Life Members: UK - George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Dr W.R. Withey, Jillian Wood. Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia.) Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,) Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.)

Mohammed K.Safdar (Saudi Arabia)

in Europe (EU and non-EU) - €30 Elsewhere - $45 equivalent Juniors (under 18) £6.50

ADVERTISING RATES We invite advertisers to use ORBIT to reach AstroPhilatelic enthusiasts worldwide. If readers have a commercial source they think they would like others to benefit from please let the firm know of us:. Rates are: Full page Display - £24 Half Page - £12 Quarter Page £6 One eighth of a page - £4.

Camera ready copy required with remittance by the above stated copy deadline for inclusion in our next edition.

Copy Deadline for the Oct 2012 issue is Sept 14th by which time all material intended for publication should be with the Editor.

© Copyright 2012 The Astro Space Stamp Society. No article contained herein may be reproduced without prior permission of the Author and the Society.

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The Paisley Rocketeers In an article which brings together material from an exhibit by our Chairman Margaret Morris, who as “Miss Watson” was instrumental in reforming the group in 1965 and extracts (produced with the author’s permission) from The Paisley Rocketeers

by Donald Malcolm (Stenlake Publishing, Ayrshire 1997*) we feature the exploits of this group of enthusiasts formed by the redoubtable John D. Stewart almost 80 years ago….

Another attractive souvenir cover was produced in 1966 for the 30th anniversary of the formation of the PRS. The example shown is unflown but bears a blue cachet (normal is black) and is signed. The PRS was formally reorganised in February 1968 with the aim of fostering the development of small rockets for peace uses.

During the 1930’s, rocket mail experiments were being carried out in various parts of the world—notably in Europe, the United States, Australia and India. In Paisley (near Glasgow) a schoolboy named John D. Stewart was also carrying out experiments with small rockets some of which carried little messages.

He numbered his rockets sequentially, prefaced by the letters “RR” (for Research Rocket). The successful firing of RR9 on 27th February 1936 was followed by a meeting at which his enthusiastic school friends agreed to the formation of The Paisley Rocketeers Society (PRS).

Between 1936 and 1939 sixty one research rockets of varying design were fired. Although these were small (not exceeding 11oz in weight) nonetheless the experiments were carried out in carefully documented and scientific manner. Mistakes were corrected and progress was made. The war stopped all activities. By chance, the mail carried in some 14 of these early rockets came on the market around 1965 and started up interest in the PRS once again. There was just time to produce a souvenir cover to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the firing of RR1, an example of which is shown above.

All activities came to a halt when the PRS received a letter from Her Majesty’s Inspector of Explosives (!) stating that the Explosives Act (1875) made it illegal to use firework motors.

Protest labels (shown right) were printed and a fund started for the freedom to fly small model rockets.

Experiments began with water propelled rockets aptly named “Aquajets”.

See commemorative Aquajet covers in full colour on our back page.

Photo from Donald Malcolm’s book * ISBN 1 84033 009 0

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covers were removed for posting on 13 March 1986 to mark the successful rendezvous of the Giotto probe with the tail of Comet Halley.

Meetings of Minds A meeting of two rocketeers took place in January 1972 when John Stewart of Paisley first met Arthur Harrington of Darlington. Three years later when GB stamps were being issued for the 150th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, John Stewart designed a special cover which was then flown in one of Arthur Harrington’s rockets.

The cover design depicts in silhouette principal buildings and spires of the Paisley skyline, as identified below.

A special Aquajet launch was arranged on 11 April 1976 for the visit to Scotland of the President of the Rocket Mail Society, American airline pilot Al Barnes. Although A-41 had performed well on prevision occasion, it had been weakened and under pressure the aft vessel split allowing water to pour out. Here Al looks on as John Stewart carries out repairs using reinforcing strip and chewing gum !

Later on 12 June 1976 with the faulty vessel replaced, this Aquajet was launched again in a demonstration for the then very popular Irish comedian Dave Allen and a TV crew. The 70 flimsies carried in these shots all have impact crushes.

The associated photo with Allen on the extreme right (opposite) is reproduced from Donald Malcolm’s book.

One of the last experiments involved heavy load trial flights with a Cola bottle Aquajet known as A-69. Only the rear vessel was pressurised; the front one contained the payload and the nosecone was fully packed with plastic foam of varying density. To improve accuracy, large fins angled at 4° were applied to give spin to the rocket. This cover is from the final firing of 27 September 1985. However, fifty of the 4

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Above a reproduction of page 30 of Donald Malcolm’s book showing late flights by John Stewart and right a cover from RR-100, showing impact crushes and wrinkling because of the tight confines of the one inch diameter mail capsule.

Below other covers from the later years of the Society.

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Space Tourism Soon Reality From Bert van Eijck Eighteen months ago I stood next to a remote mangrove area near the sea coast, knowing within two years this will be the hottest news spot of 2014.

The Country: the independent Caribbean island of Curacao.

The Place: direct surroundings of Hato International Airport, Willemstad.

The Sea: the Caribbean Sea flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Date: December 22nd, 2010.

A couple of hundred metres back is the daily routine of planes flying from and to South and North America, Europe and within the region. Here it is quiet, no people, no sound, even no birds. It is hard to believe, but here will arise a spaceport. To be exact: a Space Shuttle Base for Personal Spaceflights.

The total investment amount is about US$ 80M. SEC seeks banks and private investors to cooperate in the project: Curacao Airport Holding is the first investor and the Dutch Royal Airline KLM became strategic partner and customer.

It all began in 2004 when Harry van Hulten, test pilot in the Royal Air Force and pioneer of the space project on the island, by accident was in the Mojave Desert in California, USA. Everything to do with space travel comes there together. He observed a small manned plane that had just won a space race. “That brought the idea of manned space also for the wider audience available”, says Van Hulten.

Space tourists would not just come to board the spaceplane. SEC will offer a three-day package in cooperation with the Curacao tourism sector. In those three days tourists will be prepared for the flight, the Space

Looking for a location, the aviator discovered the advantages of Curacao. The island offers everything needed for commercial space travel possible: good international infrastructure, proximity to North and South America, a relatively quiet air space, a mature tourism sector and predictable weather. From the first visit to Curacao in September 2008 the project went well, says Van Hulten.

“There were critical questions on the part of the government, but the attitude in the beginning was: too good to be true.”

Together with business friend Ben Droste, former Dutch Air Force commander, van Hulten founded the company Space Expedition Curacao (SEC), that will lead to commercial space on the island a former Dutch colony, now independent.

The vehicle used by SEC is an XCOR Lynx Suborbital Spacecraft, pictured right This device is designed for up to four flights per day, and room next to the pilot for one passenger. But in the first year (2014?) SEC aims already at 50 to 100 flights. With a price of US$ 95,000 per flight the organization will be profitable in its first or second year.

The project consists of three parts: the Space Line, the Spaceport and Space Experience. Once the Spaceline is in the air, SEC will build the Spaceport at the Hato International Airport to open in 2015 or 2016. (See artist’s impression right). The first year Spaceline will be operated from the current Hato airport with temporary facilities.

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Experience. With suit and helmet our tourist sits next to the pilot and thus has a great view. The plane lifts off horizontally via four rocket engines.

Branson says he already has 450 ‘dare devils’ for a future spaceflight, who are ready to pay US$ 200.000 each for the trip. Spaceship Two has two pilots and can take six passengers onboard. The carrier with the shuttle climbs to 17 kilometres, after which the mini-spaceplane will be disconnected and burn its rocket engines. With a top speed of 4500 km/hour and a force of 3G it goes to 120 kilometer above Earth where the engines stop and gliding begins.

Once the Lynx is above the sea, the plane will rise vertically and after three minutes will reach an altitude of 65 km, where the engines stop. From that moment the spaceplane is a glider, going to 100 km above Earth, where Space begins.

Pilot and tourist manoeuvre here about four minutes, then return to the atmosphere. The entire trip takes 35 minutes.

That’s the moment! All eight persons in the shuttle will unlock their belts, flying free in the shuttle where no gravity exists and will be amazed – as real astronaut predict – to see the expanse of planet Earth, beneath them. This exciting experience will only last for five minutes and end this suborbital flight. The shuttle will then slide into the atmosphere, going back to spaceport. The whole trip lasts two-and-a-half hours.

The Curacao Tourist Bureau expects that tourism to the island will increase thanks to the spaceport from 500.000 tourists per year now to 700.000 in 2014.

The entrepreneurs Van Hulten and Droste believe there also are spaceflights with scientific experiments and the launch of nano-satellites as small as a carton of milk are possible from Spaceport Curacao.

Before the real first flight is a fact, there will be more test flights, to be sure it’s all o.k. To withstand the force of 3G all passengers will have a medical check up and will do excercises so they know what they are up to. Richard Branson himself and his two kids will be onboard the first shuttle-to go, “to prove to the world it will be absolutely safe”. Branson hopes to be operational in 2015.

Already thirty passengers have bought a ticket for the Lynx spaceplane . Among them 82-year old Martin Schroeder, founder and CEO of Dutch airliner Martinair. The international assurance company Allianz Global Assistance has recently announced a coming product with a world-first: assurance for space tourists.

The Dream Chaser from NASA is another spaceplane to

Commercial Competition

be used for space tourism, imaged below. The mini-shuttle measures nine meters, has a capacity of up to seven people and will be launched by an Atlas V rocket. It is possible to dock with space station ISS or in the future bring tourists to a space hotel. This is no laugh, Hilton already has plans for such a hotel on the drawing table.

Sir Richard Branson is the main space competitor for the space tourist project on the island of Curacao. Virgin Galactic is the name of his daring enterprise: to build a commercial space terminal in the desert of US state New Mexico. “Spaceport America” is the official name.

Money is not an issue for billionaire Branson, shown here on Guinea 2010 issues.

During last year there already were two test flights with his aircraft carrier White Knight Two (24x43 metre) that carries between its widespread two wings the small shuttle Spaceship Two (18x8 metrre). The second flight was the first manned solo flight of the shuttle. At an altitude of 13.700 metres the shuttle released itself from ‘mothership’ and glided to the spaceport in the desert.

X-37B is a secret project for an unmanned mini-shuttle for the US Air Force, also to be launched with a Atlas V rocket.

There were successful test flights in orbit, around Earth.

Because of massive sun panels to be opened in space, there is enough energy to fly around for nine months. X-37B will be used for espionage flights worldwide. Engineers can make this unmanned vehicle into a manned one. Thus it will be possible to bring elite soldiers in a very short time to another continent if necessary.

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The Naming of Asteroids A newly discovered asteroid is given a provisional designation (such as 2002 AT4) consisting of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric code indicating the half-month of discovery and the sequence within that half-month. Once an asteroid's orbit has been confirmed, it is given a number, and later may also be given a name (e.g. 433 Eros). The formal naming convention uses parentheses around the number (e.g. (433) Eros), but dropping the parentheses is quite common. Informally, it is common to drop the number altogether, or to drop it after the first mention when a name is repeated in running text. (ex Wikipedia, as is most of the text on the following pages) Eros— the Greek god of love and sexual desire is shown here on New Zealand 1947.

The first asteroids to be discovered were assigned iconic symbols like the ones traditionally used to designate the planets. By 1855 there were two dozen asteroid symbols, which often occurred in several variants Ceres, formally 1 Ceres, is the smallest identified dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one in the asteroid belt. It is a rock– ice body some 950 km (590 mi) in diameter, comprising about a third of the mass of the asteroid belt, and by far the largest and most massive asteroid. Discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi it was the first asteroid to be identified, though it was considered a planet at the time. It is named after Cerēs, the Roman goddess of growing plants, the harvest, and motherly love, the subject of a long series of French definitives from 1849 onwards.

Pallas, formally designated 2 Pallas, is the second asteroid to have been discovered and one of the largest in the Solar System. It is estimated to comprise 7% of the mass of the asteroid belt, and its diameter of 530 kilometres (330 mi)–565 kilometres (351 mi) is comparable to, or slightly larger than, that of 4 Vesta. It is however 20% less massive than Vesta, placing it third among the asteroids.

It is possibly the largest irregularly shaped body in the Solar System. When Pallas was discovered by astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers on March 28, 1802, it was counted as a planet, as were other asteroids in the early 19th century. The discovery of many more asteroids after 1845 eventually led to their re-classification. 2 Pallas is named after Pallas Athena, an alternate name for the goddess of wisdom Athena, shown here on Greece 1969.

Juno formal designation 3 Juno in the Minor Planet Center catalogue system, was the third asteroid to be discovered and is one of the larger main-belt asteroids, being one of the two largest stony (S-type) asteroids, along with 15 Eunomia. It is estimated to contain 1% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. Juno was discovered on September 1, 1804, by German astronomer Karl L. Harding and named after the mythological figure Juno, the highest Roman goddess, shown as Hera on Greece 1986 Vesta, formally designated 4 Vesta, has a mean diameter of about 530 kilometres (330 mi) and is the second most massive asteroid after the dwarf planet Ceres comprising an estimated 9% of the mass of the asteroid belt.

It was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology, shown as Hestia on Greece 1986.

The surface of 5 Astraea is highly reflective and its composition is probably a mixture of nickel-iron with magnesium- and ironsilicates. Astraea was the fifth asteroid discovered, on December 8, 1845, by K. L. Hencke and named for Astraea, a goddess of justice named after the stars.

6 Hebe was the sixth asteroid to be discovered, on July 1, 1847 by Hencke his final asteroid discovery. The name Hebe, goddess of youth, was proposed by Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Main illustration from Ex Universe (Dorling Kindersley 2005).

Inset ex Wikipedia.

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Among the S-type asteroids, 7 Iris ranks fifth in geometric mean diameter after Eunomia, Juno, Amphitrite and Herculina. Its bright surface and small distance from the Sun make Iris the fourth brightest object in the asteroid belt after Vesta, Ceres, and Pallas. It was the seventh asteroid discovered, on August 13, 1847, by J. R. Hind from London, and was named after the rainbow goddess Iris of Greek mythology, sister of the Harpies and messenger of the gods, shown on France 1946.

Trojan Asteroids The Jupiter Trojans, commonly called Trojans or Trojan asteroids (shown on Ciskei 1991), are a large group of objects that share the orbit of the planet Jupiter around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each Trojan librates around one of the planet's two Lagrangian points of stability, L4 and L5, that respectively lie 60° ahead of and behind the planet in its orbit. Trojan asteroids are distributed in two elongated, curved regions around these Lagrangian points with an average semi-major axis of about 5.2 AU.

Selected Others

The first Trojan discovered, 588 Achilles, was spotted in 1906 by the German astronomer Max Wolf. A total of 5,253 Jupiter Trojans have been found as of March 2012 The term "Trojan" derives from the fact that, by convention, they are each named after a mythological figure from the Trojan War. The total number of Jupiter Trojans larger than 1 km in diameter is believed to be about 1 million, approximately equal to the number of asteroids larger than 1 km in the asteroid belt. Like main-belt asteroids, Trojans form families. On Greece 1983 Achilles plays dice with Hector during a lull in the fighting in the Trojan War

8 Flora is a large, bright main-belt asteroid and the innermost large asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometres or two-elevenths that of Flora itself, and not until the tiny 149 Medusa was discovered was a single asteroid orbiting at a closer mean distance known. It is the seventh brightest asteroid. Flora was discovered by J. R. Hind on October 18, 1847. Its name was proposed by John Herschel, from Flora, the Latin goddess of flowers and gardens (shown on USA 1958) .

10 Hygiea is the fourth largest asteroid in the Solar System by volume and mass and is located in the asteroid belt. With somewhat oblong diameters of 350–500 km, and a mass estimated to be 2.9% of the total mass of the belt it is the largest of the class of dark C-type asteroids with a carbonaceous surface. Despite its size, due to its dark surface and larger-than-average distance from the Sun, it appears very dim when observed from Earth. For this reason several smaller asteroids were observed before being discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on April 12, 1849. The name comes from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, daughter of Asclepius: New Zealand 1932.

12 Victoria was discovered by J. R. Hind on September 13, 1850 and officially named after the Roman goddess of victory, but the name also honours Queen Victoria: GB 1948 14 Irene was discovered by J. R. Hind on May 19, 1851, and named after Eirene, a personification of peace in Greek mythology. She was one of the Horae, daughter of Zeus and Themis. The name was suggested by Sir John Herschel: France 1932.

16 Psyche is one of the ten most massive main-belt asteroids at over 200 km in diameter and containing a little less than 1% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. It is the most massive metallic M-type asteroid. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on March 17, 1852 from Naples and named

after the Greek mythological figure Psyche: Berlin 1981 17 Thetis a large main-belt S-type asteroid, therefore giving it a relatively bright silicate surface was discovered by R. Luther on April 17, 1852. It was his first asteroid discovery. Its name comes from Thetis, the mother of Achilles in Greek mythology: Paraguay 1976 reproduces the Jean Ingres painting Jupiter and Thetis.

29 Amphitrite is one of the largest S-type asteroids, probably third in diameter after Eunomia and Juno, although Iris and Herculina are similar in size.

Amphitrite was discovered by Albert Marth on March 1, 1854, at the private South Villa Observatory, in Regent's Park, London. It was Marth's only asteroid discovery. Its name was chosen by George Bishop, the owner of the observatory, who named it after Amphitrite, a sea goddess in Greek mythology, shown in a painting by Nicholas Poussin on Burundi 1967

Next Issue—Naming the Jovian Moons 9

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Italy and the Shuttle : 2 - Spacelab continued by Umberto Cavallaro Flying the Italian Flag in Space The Spacelab programme was unique for many reasons. First of all it represented the first European manned space project. The demarcation of obligations as specified in the two diplomatic MoUs (memoranda of understanding) signed

by NASA and ESRO in 1973 left to the European partner the whole financial and industrial responsibility of defining, designing, developing, qualifying and delivering to NASA one prototype Engineering Model (EM), one Flight Unit (FU), ground engineering support for the first two flights and spares/documentation. NASA was to support the European effort, provide general managerial and technical information, monitor ESRO’s technical progress, specify interfaces, develop the tunnel, operate Spacelab within the Shuttle Programme and procure a second Spacelab if the first met its design and price requirements.

On the cover below signed by the ESA astronauts Ulf Merbold, Ernst Messerschmid, Reinhard Furrer and Wubbo Ockels, the main contractors are listed, including: VFWFokker/ERNO (later MBB/ERNO; prime contractor), Aeritalia (Italy - later Thales Alenia Space - PM structure, Igloo, thermal Control), Matra (France - command/data management), British Aerospace (Pallet), AEG-Telefunken (electrical power system), British Aerospace (pallet structure), Dornier Systems (Germany - environmental control and life support system), Fokker (The Netherlands), SABCA (Belgium) and Kampsax (Denmark)

In US eyes, for the first time in the history of their space effort, the design and development of a major element of a manned space vehicle was entrusted to a foreign agency and to a group of countries which had never before built such a system. This choice respected however some of the traditional concerns of NASA in co-operation with foreign countries: the space laboratory had to be self-funded (by Europe), essentially separable from the Shuttle, even if it was an integral part of the post-Apollo programme as a whole, and it didn’t require the transfer of highly advanced technical information.

This implied that US assistance would be “limited”: if found necessary and appropriate, Europe would be allowed to buy existing American equipment as black boxes. Seen from the European side, it provided Europe with the systems development and management experience needed to move into the exclusive manned space flight arena. At the end, in terms of programme costs, ESA completed its part within 140% of its original estimate, NASA's development programme was completed within 169% of its original estimate, and the NASA follow-on procurement was only 25% of the first estimate, primarily because of reduced content and favourable dollar exchange rates.

As a result, Europe had a manned space system capability and the U.S. had a really versatile laboratory system, to use with its Space Shuttle, several years before it would have been possible if the United States had had to fund it on its own. And this is why the Spacelab programme was criticised in Europe as being a $1 billion gift to the U.S. Space Shuttle programme: “Europe’s most expensive gift to the people of the United States since the statue of Liberty”.² However despite divergences and discussions during the negotiations of the agreements and their implementation, at the end of a decade of development, with the successful completion of the Spacelab 1 mission, all doubts and perplexities were removed. The Spacelab had demonstrated in a convincing fashion its ability as a useful tool capable of expanding the Shuttle's ability to conduct science on-orbit many fold or, better, capable of transforming the Shuttle into a first generation Space Station.³

US-European co-operation on Spacelab was lengthy and complex. Problems of interfaces between Spacelab and the Shuttle had to be solved while schedules and technical features of the Shuttle were progressively changing. On one hand the American programme changed over time and its originally very ambitious scope was reduced, due to a severe limitation of American funds. On the other hand, the Spacelab programme demanded from Europe much more than initially foreseen and “the large number of interface modifications needed and the delivery to NASA of more hardware than initially foreseen, greatly contributed to this increase in expenditures”. ¹

Spacelab 1 SPACELAB 1, which flew in November 1983 on STS-9. was considered a sort of verification flight test (VFT) for the European-built Spacelab system, the primary objective being to verify the Spacelab system and subsystem performance capability and to demonstrate the ability to conduct advanced scientific research in space, with astronauts and payload specialists working in the Spacelab module and coordinating their efforts with scientists at the 1 HSR 21, p. 32

2 HSR #19, p. 35 3 HSR #21, p. 3-4

This article first appeared in the March edition (#12) of Ad Astra the online journal of AS.IT.AF and is produced with Umberto’s permission

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Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) located at the Johnson Space Center.

Seventy-two experiments in the joint ESA/NASA programme would test the Spacelab system and its onboard crew in a "Multidiscipline mission" with a large scientific programme.

The chosen experiments fell in fact into five space disciplines: astronomy and solar physics, space plasma physics, atmospheric physics and Earth observations, life sciences, and materials science. There was something for everyone, including two experiments coming from Italy : - Three-Dimensional Ballistocardiography in Weightlessness (prof. A. Scano - Life Sciences) - Adhesion of Metals in an Ultra High Vacuum Facility (G. Ghersini, G. Grugni, F. Rossitto, P. Sona - Materials Science) John W. Young, the veteran of five NASA space flights and one of the most experienced astronauts was chosen as the commander of the flight crew for the Spacelab 1 mission. He had flown two Gemini missions, made two trips to the Moon in Apollo, and had commanded the first Shuttle flight in April 1981. Assisting him as pilot would be Major Brewster H. Shaw, Jr., USAF, making his first space flight, although he was an experienced test pilot and flight instructor with 3500 flying hours in over 30 types of aircraft.

Drs. Robert A. R. Parker and Owen K. Garriott would be the Mission Specialists. Both had valuable Skylab programme experience, Parker as Program Scientist on the ground, and Garriott as Science Astronaut on the Skylab 3 mission.

Garriott, a ham radio buff, would add special interest to the mission with his planned attempts to communicate to the ground with a small hand-held radio unit. Garriott and Young were prepared to perform any contingency EVA if required.

The five Payload Specialists selected by ESA and NASA in 1978 as candidates for this mission had been narrowed to two. Claude Nicollier, one of the early ESA candidates, was in training to become a Mission Specialist and would probably fly on a later mission. However, ESA had selected Ulf Merbold as its Payload Specialist for this mission. Wubbo Ockels would serve as a backup Payload Specialist and would be located in the JSC Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) during the mission to communicate with the onboard science crew. Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg would be the NASA Payload Specialist, and Dr. Michael L. Lampton would be his

backup, also playing a key support role in the POCC. This was certainly the most qualified, experienced, and trained flight crew ever selected for a space mission. The scientists had been intimately involved in the selection and preparation of the experiments and in the development and qualification of the basic Spacelab system.

At launch STS-9 was the most ambitious Space Shuttle mission to date, characterized by many "firsts": - First flight of non-career astronauts (Payload Specialists Merbold and Lichtenberg) - First flight on a NASA mission of a non-American (Merbold, a German) - Longest Shuttle mission (planned for 9 days) - Largest Shuttle crew (Commander, Pilot, two Mission Specialists, two Payload Specialists) - Two shifts for 24-hour operations - The heaviest payload to date First operational use of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System Experiments were already under way during lift-off as Lichtenberg and Merbold wore biomedical headgear to monitor their eye motions during the launch phase. Once in orbit, Lichtenberg activated the lymphocyte experiment and within 3 hours of take-off the crew was ready to open the airlock hatch and enter the Spacelab.

As in previous manned flights, half the crew experienced varying degrees of motion sickness, which was not discussed in the open press for reasons of privacy. In fact, some of the experiments would be expected to drive the subjects to the brink of nausea, so a high percentage of such problems in this mission would not have seemed unusual.

After a “very nominal” lift-off (as described by the NASA Launch Manager Al O’Hara) and a highly successful ten-days in space, the STS-9 mission experienced a thrilling conclusion. During orbiter orientation, four hours before reentry, one of the flight control computers crashed when the RCS thrusters were fired. A few minutes later, a second crashed in a similar fashion.

Although the crew did not realize it at the time, leaking hydrazine fuel from two of Columbia's auxiliary power units had started a small fire that led to an explosion 15 minutes 11

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after landing. Fortunately, no serious damage was done and the crew was in no imminent danger. It was also the last time the old STS numbering was used until STS-26 (see the panel opposite).

“We, as Aeritalia, were involved” – recalls Piero Messidoro, responsible, at that time, for the active Thermal Control System – “as we would have been in any subsequent Spacelab mission, in verifying and monitoring the actual behaviour of both the structure and thermal control subsystem in comparison with the expectations. This activity was carried-out in real time in support of the European team following the mission in NASA. In addition we were requested to analyse and predict the behaviour of the above subsystems for the new missions especially in presence of changes in the basic configuration. Updated values of mass, centre of gravity, moment of inertia for the module structure as well as thermal dissipation for module and pallets thermal control due to the new payloads or to any hardware improvements were calculated and compared with the baseline. If acceptable they became reference points for mission follow-on and post flight analyses”.

Spacelab 3 According to the original plan, Spacelab 1 was scheduled for the 10th Shuttle mission, Spacelab 2 with the 14th and Spacelab 3 with the 20th, in April 1984. Due to problems with the TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) and changes in DoD mission plans and, mainly, to the delay in finalizing the Instrument Pointing System essential for the mission's experiments of Spacelab 2, all the planning was completely revised: Spacelab 1 mission was flown on the 9th Shuttle flight, Spacelab 2 was postponed. and Spacelab 3 was scheduled for the seventeenth flight of Shuttle: mission STS 51A.

The confusing flight numbering system for Space Shuttle missions NASA shuttle flight numbers can be confusing. Following STS -9, the flight numbering system for Space Shuttle missions was changed. Thus, the next flight, instead of being designated STS-10, became STS 41-B, the first digit staying for the fiscal year in which the launch was to take place (the "4" being 1984); the second numeral represented the launch site (l for KSC and 2 for Vandenberg AFB, although no shuttles was ever launched from Vandenberg); the letter represented the order of launch assignment, e.g., "B" in STS41B meant it was the second launch scheduled for fiscal year 1984.

After the 1986 Challenger tragedy. NASA returned to the original easy-to-understand numbering system based on sequential flight numbers: the first mission when flights resumed after Challenger was the 26th shuttle and was numbered STS-26. Unfortunately, even the simple scheme became confused when NASA was forced to move flights around in the schedule. With STS numbers assigned 19 months in advance, the agency decided each flight would keep its number through all schedule changes.

It turned out – according to several astronauts' NASA oral histories – that NASA administrator James Beggs suffered from triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13 4. STS41D was supposed to launch on April 13th, which in 1984 was a Friday, and Beggs simply wanted to avoid having an "STS-13" after what had happened with Apollo 13.

Spacelab 2 The laboratory module Spacelab-2 was the primary payload of mission STS-51-F, launched from Kennedy Spacelab 3 was planned to be the prototype of a NASA- Space Center, Florida, on 29 July dedicated Spacelab mission. Rather than containing 1985, after the first launch attempt on experiments covering a broad range of disciplines as in 12 July 1985 was halted with the Spacelab 1, the Spacelab 3 payload would focus on countdown at T-3 seconds – the main microgravity for most of its investigations, with the Orbiter in engine had already been ignited – a gravity gradient attitude, its tail pointed toward the Earth, when it was discovered a malfunction to provide the best stability possible. As many as 50 firings of a coolant valve in the number two per hour of the vernier thrusters would minimize the impact SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine). ”It on the Orbiter and its payload to less than one-thousandth was the longest 3 seconds I’ve ever experienced” Commander Gordon of a g-load.

Fullerton told reporters later.

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The launch was rescheduled for July 29. Like the previous two Spacelab missions, Spacelab 2 was a verification test of the Spacelab system. This time, however, there was no laboratory module or habitable module, but pallets only, and the crew was confined to the Orbiter crew compartment.

The Spacelab 2 payload comprised 13 investigations mainly focusing on 3 scientific disciplines: astronomy, solar and plasma physics, and biology (as shown in the mission emblem), aiming at demonstrating to a variety of users the validity of the Spacelab pallet-only mode and the performance of the Instrument Pointing System. The flight marked in fact the first time the ESA Instrument Pointing System (IPS) was tested in orbit. This unique pointing instrument was designed with an accuracy of one arcsecond. Initially, some problems were experienced when it was commanded to track the Sun, but a series of software fixes were made and the problem was corrected. The IPS was fine-tuned in view of its planned use for observing Halley’s Comet during the next year (a plan that would be cancelled following the Challenger disaster in January 1986).

Despite one of the three French-built Matra computers being totally out of service (so heightening the old confrontation with the US manager who, since the beginning, intended to use IBM machines), this was a very successful scientific mission. Almost 13 000 commands were transmitted to the Orbiter, exceeding any previous Shuttle flight by 50 %. Approximately 1.25 trillion bits of data were transmitted to the ground, requiring 230 miles of magnetic tape to store.

Germany reserved this mission, flown in October/November 1985, for use by its universities, industries and other research institutions. Germany wished to benefit as much as possible from the Spacelab project in which it had invested 55% of the European budget, sometimes blamed by the other European Partners who “did not like to leave too much control in German hands”.

Payload operations and scientific research carried out during the seven-day mission were controlled from the German Space Operations Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, near Munich, instead of the regular NASA Centre which only operated the Shuttle, and was responsible for overall safety and control functions throughout the flight.

The mission holds other records also, since it was the only shuttle flight to launch with a crew of eight, and still holds the record for the largest crew aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing. On board the Space Shuttle Challenger, in its last successful flight were in fact Henry Hartsfield, Steven Nagel, Bonnie Dunbar, James Buchli, Guion Bluford, Germans Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer and ESA astronaut from the Netherlands Wubbo Ockels who became the second ESA astronaut and the first Dutch citizen in space (not the first Dutch-born astronaut, as he was preceded by naturalised American Lodewijk van den Berg, who flew into space five months earlier). More than 75 scientific experiments were completed in the areas of physiological sciences, materials science, biology and navigation.

22 Spacelab Missions A similar mission, Deutschland 2 (Spacelab-D2 or DLR-2), was planned in 1988, but after the Challenger disaster, was postponed until 1993 (STS-55) and became the first German human space flight after the German reunification.

Spacelab D1 STS-61A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission and was the first Spacelab flight entirely funded and controlled by one country: West Germany. Hence the name D1 (for Deutschland 1).

The mission marked the first utilization of the second Spacelab module LM2, purchased by NASA for its own use from ERNO, developed by former Aeritalia (now Thales Alenia Space) and integrated in Germany by ERNO. 13

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experiements which enhanced procedures and operations.

A Spacelab LM2 module – onboard of STS-71 – was used in the first joint Shuttle/Mir mission during which Americans and Soviets run a wide range of experiments in 7 disciplines: cardiovascular and pulmonary physiology, human metabolism; neuroscience; hygiene, sanitation and radiation; behavioural performance and biology; fundamental biology; and microgravity research. The Mir 18 crew served as test subjects for investigations.

Even Japan, in 1992, funded its own Spacelab mission: Spacelab-J on STS-47 on materials science and 20 in life science, mainly sponsored by NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency. For the first time a Japanese astronaut – Mamoru Mohri – flew in space.

Obviously the United States has its own dedicated Spacelab missions. In particular the missions USML-1 (1992) and USML-2 (1995) were completely devoted to microgravity experiments. In both the mission the module LM1 was used, on-board Columbia.

Top, a cover commemorating the mission USML-1 (STS-50): and above mission USML-2 (STS-73) USML-1, taking advantage of the long-duration of the mission, Completed 31 microgravity experiments in five basic areas: fluid dynamics, crystal growth, combustion science, biological science, and technology demonstration provided new insights into the theoretical models in use.

Different flight configurations Different Spacelab configurations flew altogether in 22 Shuttle missions between November 1983 and April 1998.

After that, the scientific experiments were run aboard the ISS, where modules derived from Spacelab exist. The list of the Spacelab missions is shown in the table opposite top.

Space relics on show Spacelab LM1 has been on display, since December 2003, in the Space Science Exhibition Station at the Steven F. UdvarHazy Center in Chantilly, VA (USA), annex of the National Air & Space Museum at Dulles International Airport, Washington DC. Spacelab LM2, was returned to ESA in April 1999 and exhibited for ten years in the Bremenhalle at the Bremen Airport. In 2010 it was transferred to Building 4C of Astrium, near Bremen Airport.

The mission plan of USML-2, incorporated technical knowledge gained in the previous mission and ran 14 14

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Above Spacelab LM1 in Chantilly, Virginia (USA) and right Spacelab LM2 in Bremen (Germany) The Spacelab Pallet nicknamed “Elvis” was transferred to the Swiss Museum of Transport for permanent display on 5th March 2010. Elvis, was used during the eight-day STS-46 mission, 31 July—8 August 1992, when Italian Astronaut Franco Malerba was on board Shuttle Atlantis to deploy ESA's European Retrievable Carrier scientific mission (Eureca), and the joint NASA/ASI Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1).

References [HSR #14] ESA History Study Report 14] evolution of the US European negotiations on the post-Apollo programme from 1969 onwards [HSR #19] Arturo Russo, Big Technology, Little Science, ESA History Study Report HSR #21, European Space Agency 1997, pp IV + 52

[HSR #21] Lorenza Sebesta, Spacelab in context, ESA History Study Report HSR #21, European Space Agency 1997, pp III + 108 [SP 487] Douglas R. Lord, Spacelab - An International Success Story, NASA SP 487, Washington DC, 1987, pp. XV + 554 [NP-119] NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Science in Orbit: The Shuttle and Spacelab Experience, 1981–1986, NASA NP-119, Washington, 1988 http://history.nasa.gov/NP-119/NP-119.htm [MoU 1973] Memorandum Of Understanding between the National Aeronautics And Space Administration and the European Space Research Organisation for a cooperative programme concerning development. procurement and use of a space laboratory in conjunction with the space shuttle system, 14 August 1973, in HSR #21 p. 79-95

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Swim suits, golf clubs and cordless tools

of golf clubs. Indeed, not the most valuable innovation but still an interesting one. And regarding our cell phone cameras, they all use a technology initially developed for space applications.

What they all have to do with each other ? asks John Beenen

A very interesting development (from 1982) is cooling cloth, now worn by F1 racing drivers, people under dangerous conditions or patients with a special need. Also in common household residues of space developments can be found.

(3. Fujeira, 1969). To solve the problem of drilling in the moon soil without a connective cord of over 300.000 km, in short, to develop a cordless tool NASA asked Black & Decker to develop cordless tools based upon rechargeable batteries.

Nowadays nearly everybody has such a tool in possession be it a vacuum cleaner, a drill or a screw driver.

At first sight not much, I would say, but they all have been developed from spacecraft developments.

Some people say space development costs us a lot of money, which could be spent to better purpose and has only a few results like better than a couple of prestige projects. Fine, we reached the Moon and that has been a great leap for mankind, but was it worth the costs?

Certainly, in the beginning spacecraft were prestige objects: who became the first man in space? who was the first woman in space? who first set foot on the Moon? Indeed, spacecraft cost a lot of money, but everything is relative and as a mean it was less than 1% of the United States budget. Finally, in the first place spacecraft became a technological development project with all sorts of spinoffs and from those I will show some fine examples.

To propagate spacecraft in the past one pointed to the Tefal baking pan originating from spacecraft developments, but actually that isa myth. Tefal, the fluorine containing plastic material, which resists heat so well, was invented by the American multinational Dupont

although the spacecraft contributed much to the development of all kinds of coatings to their present state of application.

(USA, 1992, Sc #2641) But what spaceflight has realized were bathing suits by which our swimmers improved their results so amazingly that they may not be used anymore competitively. The development of such suits had a direct connection to the investigations of NASA to the friction and drag of different tissues for space suits.

Smoke detectors find their origin in space. They were used for the first time in the Skylab project to detect poisonous gases. Some other inventions which have enhanced our safety may be mentioned such as the hollow reflector today used for the detection of dangerous gases in the oil industry, chemical plants and refuse deposits.

(4. poster stamp, USA) Even food for babies has a connection with space when a laboratory in Maryland, USA, was tasked with developing food of high quality for prolonged flights. In doing so they found that certain types of algae contained two types of fatty acids which showed a high resemblance with mothers’ milk. Based upon this invention today high nutritional value baby food is made for babies in poor health. And don’t forget the improvements in the freeze-dry process initially meant for food for astronauts, but today widely known in products in our supermarkets.

Even our holy cow, the car, is not free from space developments.

Today we drive on recycled highways and that are comfortable and safe for our drivers. But did you know that the crumbling of used car tires, today part of the cover of our highways, was a result of a space investigation to the manufacturing of cryogenic fuels at 200°C? Also our problem ‘What to do with the huge pile of used car tires’ could be solved in this way.

In the field of environmental protection spacecraft resulted in some other advantages such as the development of microcapsules able to absorb large oil pollutions.

But there are more applications in sports to be found. So, soles of sports shoes today are no longer fabricated from foam rubber, but of a foamy material developed for use in space, actually for the seats of the astronauts to make them more shock resistant at launch. Such material is also used for shock resistant helmets and more important for artificial parts. Additionally the upper layer was improved by investigations first made for use in space.

(5. Senegal, 2000) But our cars benefit further from space inventions. Today hybrid technology is well known. The use of the lithium based batteries necessary for this purpose is directly connected to space technology. Also a computer program has been developed to design spacecraft faster and easier. Such programs now are also used for designing cars and airplanes. In particular airplane design relies much on aerodynamic experiments in wind tunnels for space part testing.

For the design of airplanes lightweight composites (a kind of plastics) are commonly used. Also the modern glasslike cockpit relies on a space design.

(2. Australia, 2011) In spacecraft a whole new series of metal alloys has been investigated and those appeared to be the start for a new design

But medical science specially has a lot to thank the space inventors. And not just the development of an ear thermometer by which a temperature can be read in seconds, but first of the

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Continued on page 32

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Shuttle Story : 2010/11 STS -133, - 134, -135 * The Final Phase

Flight

STS-133 (ISS assembly flight ULF5) was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle programme during which Discovery on its 39th and final flight docked with the ISS. At the close Discovery’s time in space aggregated to 365 days ! The mission was affected by a series of delays due to technical problems with the external tank and, to a lesser extent, the payload. The launch, initially scheduled for September 2010, was pushed back to October, then to November, then finally to February 2011.

The crew joined the long-duration six person crew of Expedition 26.

About a month before lift-off, one of the original crew members, Tim Kopra, was injured in a bicycle accident and replaced by Stephen Bowen. The mission transported several items to the space station, including the Permanent Multipurpose Module Leonardo, which was left permanently docked to one of the station's ports. The shuttle also carried the third of four ExPRESS Logistics Carriers as well as a humanoid robot called Robonaut.

NASA announced the STS-133 crew on 18 September 2009, and training began in October 2009. All six crew members had experienced at least one spaceflight before; five of the crew members, all but commander Steven Lindsey, were part of NASA's Astronaut Group 18, all being selected in the year 2000.[21] The mission commander, Steven Lindsey, handed over his position as Chief of the Astronaut Office position to Peggy Whitson in order to lead the mission. For the first time, two mission crew members were in space when a crew assignment announcement was made, as Nicole Stott and Michael Barratt were aboard the ISS as part of the Expedition 20 crew. During STS-133, Alvin Drew became the last African-American astronaut to fly on the space shuttle, as no African-Americans were among the crews of STS-134 and STS-135. Having flown on-board Atlantis' STS-132 mission, Bowen

STS-133

Commander Steven Lindsey Pilot Eric Boe MS MS MS MS

Alvin Drew Stephen Bowen Michael Barratt Nicole Stott

KSC Launch Date : 24.2.2011 KSC Landing : 9.3.2011 Purpose / PMM Leonardo Main Payload ExPRESS Carrier became the first NASA astronaut to be launched on two consecutive missions.

Note that the mission patch on the cover below is the version including Kopra’s name.

Biber Post stamp : see p 33 of Orbit 93

* The last part of this extended series appeared on page 18 of Orbit no 88 for January 2011. Text on pages 17-19 edited from Wikipedia sources

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STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6) was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and final flight of Endeavour. This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander. STS-134 might have been the final mission if STS-135 did not receive funding from Congress; however, in February 2011, NASA stated that STS-135 would fly "regardless" of the funding situation. The Launch On Need mission, a contingency mission to rescue a stranded STS-134 crew, would have been the STS-135 flight (formerly STS-335), flown by Atlantis.

Flight

Changes in the design of the main payload, AMS-02, as well as delays to STS-133, led to delays in the mission. The first launch attempt on 29 April 2011 was scrubbed but Endeavour launched successfully at 08:56:28 EDT on 16 May 2011, and landed for the final time on 1 June 2011.

KSC Launch Date : 16.05.2011 KSC Landing : 1.6.2011

The Space Shuttle had been scheduled to be retired from service after STS-133, but controversy over the cancellation of several International ISS components, most notably the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, in order to meet deadlines for the retirement of the shuttle, caused the United States Government to consider ordering an additional mission.

President Bush had previously opposed any additional shuttle missions, as they could delay the transition to Project Constellation. In the spring of 2009, in its proposed 2010 NASA budget the Obama Administration included funds for the STS-134 mission as the final regularly scheduled mission of the programme, but with the passing in 2011 of an appropriations bill authorizing the conversion of STS-335 to STS-135, this was no longer the case.

Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly's wife, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, flew to KSC in Florida to view the first launch attempt, her first trip since moving from Tucson to Houston for rehabilitation after being seriously wounded in the January 2011 Tucson

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STS-134

Commander Mark Kelly Pilot Gregory Johnson MS MS MS MS

Michael Fincke Roberto Vittori Andrew Feustel Gregory Chamitoff

Purpose / AMS-02.

Main Payload ExPRESS Carrier shooting. On 16 May, Giffords was again at KSC for the launch, which was "one of the most anticipated in years," according to The New York Times.

U.S. President Barack Obama scheduled a visit to KSC on 29 April 2011 to view the launch and despite the cancelled launch attempt he toured an Orbiter Processing Facility at Launch Complex 39 and met with Giffords and the six crewmembers.

ORBIT

Flight

Shuttle Reaches Terminus STS-135 (ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the final shuttle mission using Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 launched on 8 July and was originally scheduled to land on 20 July 2011, but the mission was extended to 21 July 2011. The four person crew was the smallest of any shuttle mission since STS-6 in April 1983. The mission's primary cargo was the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Raffaello and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier (LMC). The flight of Raffaello marked the only time that Atlantis carried an MPLM. Although the mission was authorized, it initially had no appropriation in the NASA budget, raising questions about whether it would fly. On 20 January 2011, programme managers changed STS-335 to STS-135 on the flight manifest. This allowed for training and other mission specific preparations. On 13 February 2011, managers told their workforce that STS-135 would fly regardless of the funding situation via a continuing resolution. Until this point, there had been no official references to the STS-135 mission in NASA official documentation for the general public.

STS-135

Commander Christopher Ferguson Pilot Douglas Hurley MS MS

Sandra Magnus Rex Walheim

KSC Launch Date : 8.7.2011 KSC Landing : 21.7.2011 Purpose / MPLM Raffaello Main Payload LMC

subsequent appropriation bill. United Space Alliance signed a contract extension for this mission, along with STS-134; the During an address at the Marshall Space Flight Center on 16 contract contained six oneNovember 2010, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that the month options with NASA agency needed to fly STS-135 to the station in 2011, due to possible in order to support continuing operations. delays in the development of commercial rockets and spacecraft designed to transport cargo to the ISS. "We are hoping to fly a third The US federal budget approved in mid-April 2011 shuttle mission (in addition to STS-133 and STS-134) in June 2011, called for $5.5 billion for NASA's space operations what everybody calls the launch-on-need mission... and that's really division, including the space shuttle and space needed to [buy down] the risk for the development time for station programmes. According to NASA, the budget running through 30 September 2011 had commercial cargo," Bolden said. ended all concerns about funding the STS-135 The mission was included in NASA's 2011 authorization, signed into mission law on 11 October 2010, but funding remained dependent on a

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Ancient & Modern How mythological allusion has inspired naming conventions within our fields of interest:

6: Space Probes, Projects and Programmes continued

C-4 and D-5 ICBMs were alternatively known as Trident C-4, and D-5 which was quite appropriate because of the essential attribute of Poseidon in Greek mythology.

Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea, brother of supreme god Zeus who was given an area of the world to reign over.

We associate him with dolphins and tridents. Cyprus 1989 and Greece 1964 show respectively the sea god assisting the nymph Amymone (who had been attacked by a satyr) trident in hand and the Trident of Paxi which according to legend he used to create the island by striking and dividing Corfu to create a peaceful haven for him and his wife.

P-U Pegasus has been used as the title of a handful of space projects — a French sounding rocket, a privately funded airlaunched winged light satellite launcher and an American micrometeoroid satellite with three launches in the mid1960s.

After Hermes, Pegasus is the second most popular topic for philatelic celebration of the Greek pantheon, often as the constellation which bears his name. He was a winged horse, the son of Poseidon, tamed by Athena and presented to the Muses on Mount Parnassus. Greece 1935 shows him mounted by Bellerophon.

The name Phoenix has been used for an American Mars Lander (2007) (shown on Malagasy 2011) and an orbital launch vehicle of the 1980s.

The former was suitably named as it was based on surplus hardware from the cancelled Mars Surveyor 2001 and the failed Mars Polar Lander.

The Phoenix—shown here on a 1946 Hong Kong Victory issue above the Latin motto Resurgo (“I rise again”) - was a mythical bird which appeared in many ancient mythologies from Greek to Chinese. It has very colourful plumage and towards the end of a very long life-cycle, possibly a millennium, it was supposed to build itself a nest of twigs, immolate fiercely and then be reborn out of the ashes. It has been associated in some belief systems with the Resurrection of Christ.

Poseidon was an American submarine-launched two-stage ballistic missile of the 1960’s capable of carrying a nuclear warhead with twice the range of Polaris A-3. The Poseidon

Prithvi is an Indian single-stage short range ballistic missile first deployed in 1995, named after the mother goddess, one of two wives of the Lord Vishnu. “Prithvi” is the Sanskrit name for “earth” She is known by various other names including Laxmi, Dhra and Bhumi.

This 1995 Indian stamp celebrates fifty years of a theatre one of Mumbai’s greatest theatre named after founder Prithviraj Kapoor but ultimately in the goddess’s honour.

Prometheus was an American sounding rocket for lightning research, named after one of the Titans or the old gods usurped by Zeus, He ventured back into Mount Olympus in order to steal sacred fire from the name regime. (Greece 1997) For this transgression Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle feed off his liver daily for eternity !

The Scaled Composites Model 281 Proteus is a tandemwing high-endurance aircraft designed by Burt Rutan to investigate the use of aircraft as high altitude telecommunications relays. The Proteus is actually a multimission vehicle, able to carry various payloads on a ventral pylon. It is currently owned by Northrop Grumman.

Proteus (aka The Old Man of the Sea) is a son of Poseidon, shown on the left of Greece 1992 with Pegasus and Bellerophon on the right.

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Rohini is the name given to a series of satellites launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in the early 1980’s. The Rohini series consisted of four satellites, all of which were launched by the Indian space research organisation Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) and three of which made it successfully to orbit. The series consisted of mostly experimental satellites launched on the experimental launch vehicle SLV. A Rohini launch is shown on India 1981.

In Hinduism, Rohini Devi is a consort of Vasudeva. She is the mother of Balarama and Subhadra, and played a prominent role in the nurture of Krishna. She was a partial incarnation of Kadru, the mother of the snakes.

The Saturn launch vehicle was the penultimate expression of the Peenemuende Rocket Team's designs for manned exploration of the moon and Mars. Numerous designs and variants were studied, but in the end only three models the Saturn I, IB, and V - were built in the 1960's, and then only used to support NASA's Apollo moon landing programme: Seychelles 1969 shows the launch of Apollo XI in July 1969.

Saturn was the Roman equivalent of Cronus, son of Uranus and Gaia and the youngest of the twelve Titans or Giants, the old gods, removed

by Zeus. Greece 1972 shows Zeus driving out Cronus and the other Titans.

Thor was an American liquid propellant intermediate range ballistic missile, developed by Douglas in 1956-1958. 60 were deployed to Britain in 1958-1962. It was the basis for a family of Thor and Delta space launch vehicles, remaining in production into the 2010's.

Thor Able was the American orbital launch vehicle comprising Thor with an Able stage derived from Vanguard second stage.

Thor was the red-bearded Norse god of thunder and one of the most powerful gods. His essential attribute was his hammer Mjollnir as shown on Faroes 2003.

from the Titan II ICBM. Titan outlived the competing NASA Saturn I launch vehicle and the Space Shuttle for military launches. It was finally replaced by the USAF's EELV boosters, the Atlas V and Delta IV. Although conceived as a low-cost, quick-reaction system, Titan was not successful as a commercial launch vehicle. Air Force requirements of growth over the years drove its costs up - the Ariane using similar technology provided lower-cost access to space.

The Titans (also known as The Giants) such as Uranus, Cronus and Prometheus were the old Greek gods usurped and driven out of Mount Olympus by Zeus and his new regime. Greece 1973 shows Zeus driving out The Giants…

Triton was US Navy ship- and sub-to-surface cruise ramjetpowered supersonic missile. The development started in 1946 but was cancelled within a decade.

In Greek mythology Triton was the half-man half-fish son of Poseidon and Amphitrite and lived with parents in a golden palace on the sea bed. He rides on waves of horses and excites or calms the seas by using a conch shell which he blows violently or gently.

On Greece 2009 with Triton (the character with the fish tail) is shown in combat with Nereus, father of the seanymphs called the Nereids.

Ulysses was a European solar satellite launched in October as a joint NASA / ESA mission designed to study the polar regions of the Sun, as shown on San Marino 1994.

In Greek mythology Odysseus, known as Ulysses to the Romans had many adventures in a ten year “odyssey” returning to his wife Penelope after the Trojan War including here for example lashed to his mast being tempted by the Sirens, on Greece 2009. He eventually makes it back to his home on Ithaca where he slaughters all the suitors who had been trying to take his wife away from him : Greece 1983.

The Titan launch vehicle family was developed by the United States Air Force to meet its medium lift requirements in the 1960's. The designs finally put into production were derived 21

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ATV—a challenging new topic for Astrophilately collectors Crucial Supply Vehicle for the ISS Umberto Cavallaro “The arrival of ATV was welcomed in a festive atmosphere by the ISS inhabitants, since it carried fresh meals and some personal presents”. So Paolo Nespoli recalls the docking of ATV-2 to the International Space Station on Feb.16, 2011.

“You know: after a while, after three months of freeze-dried foods and tin cans, all of them have the same taste”.

After the retirement of the Shuttle, the role of ATV has become crucial for supporting ISS activities which now rely on the essential supplies carried by the European ATV, the Japanese HTV and the veterm Russian Progress, with its one third of the load capacity of ATV.

ATV-1 Jules Verne Since its first flight, ATV-1 Jules Verne has become a subject for collectors. The French philatelic Club “La Marianne” (EADS Astrium – France) has issued 4 commemorative covers – offered in a folder – marking respectively ATV leaving the Estec Test Centre (July 13, 2007), Launch of ATV from Kourou (March 9, 2008), tracking by the CELM (March 10, 2008 – cancelled at Biscarrosse, France) and docking to ISS (April 4, 2008 – postmarked at the Control Centre of Toulouse, France) two of which (launch and docking) are shown below.

Also the ERNO-Philatelie Club (EADS Astrium – Germany) issued 3 commemorative covers (two of which are shown above) for the launch from Kourou (March 9, 2008) and for the docking to ISS (April 4, 2008 – postmarked at the Control Centre of Toulouse (France) and Korolëv Control Centre in Moscow, which was in charge of the docking.

ATV-1 also delivered to the ISS a special protective CTB (Cargo Transfer Bag) containing 1200 covers prepared by the French Club “La Marianne” and 550 cards prepared by the German Club “Erno-Philatelie” (EADS-Astrium, Bremen).

Above one of the French covers (numbered 1-1200) flown on ATV-1 Jules Verne. 25 covers were marked onboard with the ISS octagonal seal and autographed by the Russian Cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko. Opposite top right, one of the German cards, numbered 1-550. All the items were stored in the Leonardo MPLM (Multipurpose Logistic Module) and returned to Earth on November 30, 2008, on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour This article first appeared in the March edition (#12) of Ad Astra the online journal of AS.IT.AF and is produced with Umberto’s permission

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ATV-2 Johannes Kepler Two commemorative covers were issued by “La Marianne” to celebrate launch and docking.

Flight Water ATV-1 Jules Verne, in 2008, for the first time carried to ISS drinking water for “use in space”, the so called “Flight Water” The water used on-board the ISS has to meet the technological and hygienic requirements of the Station’s international crew. Two different quality standards have been set, respectively for the Russian Cosmonauts and the American Astronauts.

While Russians require highly mineralized water, fluoridated and disinfected with silver, Americans prefer less mineralised and disinfected with Iodine.

Top, tracking of ATV-2 (Feb. 17 February 2011 – cancelled at According to a contract CELM, Centre d'Essais de Lancement de Missiles di signed in 2002, the Pluguffan, Francia) and above docking of ATV-2 with ISS Flight Water is supplied (Feb. 24 2011) by SMAT (Società Metropolinata Acque Torino), the Public Water Company of Turin (Italy) where Thales Alenia Space is based. Among the different water sources managed by SMAT it was easy to find the waters able to meet both the Russian and American requirements. Hence the spring water from Pian della Mussa mountains is used for the American Astronauts, while the water for the Russians is taken from a well in the western area of the Turin Metropolitan District.

A non-postal stamp was issued to celebrate the “Flight Water” agreement in 2002.

ERNO-Philatelie issued a ship cover and a launch cover.

Cover prepared for the transfer of ATV-2 to Kourou onboard the ship MN Toucan. Pictorial postmark of Bremen on the day of the delivery (11-05-2010: cancelled on the back at its arrival in Kourou on 25-05-2010. On the right launch cover (Kourou 16-02-2011).

ATV-3 would again carry “Flight Water”. A special cover was prepared by AS.IT.AF. (see the cachet above), and was to be cancelled in Kourou on the launch date.

Paper cut and paste—updated with ATV 3 data

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ATV-2 also carried to the ISS philatelic items: 600 covers prepared by “La Marianne”, 550 cards prepared by “ErnoPhilatelie” and 600 covers prepared by Thales Alenia Space.

The CTB #1442, stored in the ATV-2 Kepler, contained an ISS cover kit (600 covers type “A” prepared by the French club La Marianne), a First Day Cover Kit (550 cards type “B” prepared by the German Club Erno/Philatelie) and a Italian Cover Kit (Type “C”). Following an Agreement with La Marianne, AS.IT.AF. arranged to have 153 covers marked with the octagonal ISS on-board stamp and to have them signed by all the Expedition 26-27 crew. On the first 74 covers the Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli also added the stamp of its MagISStra mission (type “D”).

A

ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi On March 23, 2012 ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi (named after the 20th-century Italian physicist) was launched from Kourou, carrying to the ISS 7 tons of supplies, water, air, spare parts dry cargo and fuel, marking the start of ATV as an annual production-line supply vehicle for the Space Station: the next ATVs, Albert Einstein and Georges Lemaître, will follow in 2013 and 2014, positioning Europe as an essential partner in operating the orbital outpost.

Two commemorative covers were prepared by AS.IT.AF. respectively in December 2010 and December 2011, for celebrating the delivery of the ATV from the premises of Thales Alenia Space in Turin (Italy), where the Pressurized Cargo Carrier is produced, to the prime contractor’s EADS Astrium facility in Bremen (Germany), for the final integration: below and bottom right

B

C

D

Partners of ATV Consortium EADS Astrium - Bremen (DE) Programme Management, design, development and production of the Service Module (SM), integration of SM and ICC (Integrated Cargo Carrier) coming from Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space – Torino (IT) Design, development and production of the Pressurized Cargo Carrier (PCC), integration of PCC and RDS, delvery of the ICC to EADS-Astrium.

RSC-Energia – Korolëv (RU) Design, development and production of the Russian Docking System (RDS), RFS (propellant Re-Fuelling system) and RECS (Russian Equipment Control System)

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Now there’s no shuttle‌...

A selection of covers prepared by Bristol based member Ken Woods showing the current international means of restocking the ISS

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A French Golden Jubilee

By Bert van Eijck

What NASA is to the United States, CNES is to France.

President Charles de Gaulle took the initiative for its foundation in 1961. Responsible are two French departments: the ministries of Science and of Defence.

CNES plays an important role in the European Space Agency (ESA), in the first place for its launch base near the equator in South America.

One of the main projects is the development of the SPOT earth observation satellites (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre). There also are a lot of scientific projects like CoRoT=Convention Rotation and Planetary Transits.

The Postal Administration in France, La Poste, issued October 17, 2011 a jubilee stamp for the 50th anniversary of CNES. CNES headquarters is in Paris, but the main establishment is This stands for “Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales” = in Toulouse, the Centre Spatial de Toulouse. Apart from National Centre for Space Studies. stamps for CNES there are a lot of different postal cancellations, the so-called prepay cancels in red, used by On the 0,60 euro stamp we the Space Control Centre in CNES branches in France on CNES envelopes for business Kourou, French Guyana, the launch base of the rocket Ariane. correspondence.

On top there is the text “1961-2011 cinquantenaire du CNES.” Five of these envelopes with red CNES cancels are illustrated here: This is the second French stamp for a jubilee of CNES. The first one was issued CNES Centre Spatial de Bretigny, 5.6.70 May 17, 1982 (Yvert 2213) to mark 20 CES Centre Spatial de Toulouse 21.2.86 years of CNES. On this 2,60 Fr. Stamp we CNESPACE 3615 with lauching rocket, Paris 11.7.91 see Ariane, the Eole satellite and the CNES Centre Spatial d’Evry 23-8-95 antennae of the tracking station CNES with logo, Paris Chatelet 13.10.95 Pleumeur Bodou.

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Classic Soviet Astrophilately – Cosmonautics Day 1962 Issues Left Club Cover Commemorating the First Anniversary of Gagarin’s Spaceflight.

Right Club Cover Commemorating the First Cosmonautics Day holiday

Jim Reichman summarizes the findings from a recent study of space covers commemorating the first anniversary of Gagarin’s spaceflight and the first Cosmonautics Day in April 1962.

Collecting Soviet covers, stamps, and postmarks commemorating that nation’s space achievements has been a favourite hobby of mine for many years. I’ve acquired a lot of covers over those years and, like other space collectors, have struggled to organize, categorize, and make sense of the wide variety of those issues and other philatelic commemoratives.

This process is made even harder because of the lack of adequate documentation, especially in my own native language, as well as conflicting information in the various catalogues that are available. Add to these problems the collecting issues related to unofficial postmark colours and backdated covers and you can easily understand the challenges facing Soviet space collectors.

Collector response to these challenges can either be to just sit back and enjoy the colourful and artistic stamps and covers or it could be to delve into the details, search out elusive production facts, and try to understand the background of the philatelic items being collected. In my opinion, this latter approach is when the real fun begins: this is when unusual facts and sometimes surprises are uncovered, this is when important discoveries are made and real collectible treasures are found. This is also when collectors become astrophilatelists.

This particular article is about a recently completed study of issues from the early years of Soviet spaceflight which is why it is titled “Classic Soviet Astrophilately”. The issues under analysis in this case are those philatelic collectibles related the commemorations and celebrations which occurred on 12 April 1962 which happens to be the very first Cosmonautics Day. 27

Background Space collectors were obviously disappointed about the fact that the Soviet government kept their spaceflight plans, as well as the location of their launch sites, a secret most of the first 20 years of the Cosmic Era. This was extremely frustrating because it made it impossible for collectors to get good launch- and landing-site covers commemorating such monumentally important and historic events as the world’s first satellite and early manned spaceflights. Perhaps that’s why so much significance was placed on philatelically commemorating the anniversaries of these spaceflight events. This was especially true for the first anniversary of man’s initial voyage into the cosmos.

Introduction It appears, from looking at the Soviet covers commemorating the first anniversary of Gagarin’s spaceflight, that a lot of preparation work had been done not only by the official postal authorities but also by collector clubs around the USSR. Preparations were even more intense in Moscow where the local collector club decided to host the first-ever “To-the-Stars” philatelic exhibition. That exhibition was to be 19 days long opening on the 5th of April (a Thursday) and closing on the 23rd of April (a Monday). That would put the actual anniversary of Gagarin’s flight, i.e., the 12th of April (a Thursday), a little less than halfway through the exhibition.

One can imagine that the preparation tensions had mostly faded once that exhibition was finally underway and the first full weekend was completed. All of a sudden on Monday, the 9th of April, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dropped a “bombshell” on the whole affair by announcing that they had decided to establish a new holiday called “Day of Cosmonautics”. That holiday was to be celebrated each year on the anniversary of Gagarin’s historic spaceflight, i.e., 12 April. The first such holiday was to be on Thursday, just three days from their announcement.

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Whether or not Soviet collectors and the exhibition organizers were aware that this holiday was to be established, before it was announced on the 9 th of April, is not known for sure. The fact that so many of the club covers, the club cachets, the envelope cachets, as well as the official commemorative stamps only mention the Gagarin spaceflight anniversary aspects related to 12 April (with no hint that it was also the “Day of Cosmonautics”) strongly implies that this was a complete surprise. Most likely the only ones who knew that this holiday was being considered were those at the highest level of the Soviet government and perhaps some of the elite in the Soviet space program, e.g., Chief Designer S. P. Korolev.

One can only imagine the Soviet postal designers and collector clubs scrambling to come up with new designs in just three days. No new stamp was designed, not even an overprint of the Gagarin spaceflight anniversary stamp.

About the only philatelic difference noticeable, at the government level, was that a special, Cosmonautics Day postmark was created but that was only for use at the Moscow post office.

“The rest,” as they say, “is history.” The original Gagarin anniversary stamps were released, the original Gagarin anniversary postmarks and the new, Moscow Cosmonautics Day postmark for the 12th of April 1962 were both used to cancel covers, and the “To-the-Stars” philatelic exhibition continued and completed on the 23rd of April. In addition, collector clubs from around the USSR produced club covers to commemorate Gagarin’s spaceflight anniversary with a few even managing to create covers commemorating the new Cosmonautics Day holiday.

As is always the case, “the devil is in the details”. In other words, when you delve into the details of what really happened, it’s not always as simple as it might appear to be on the surface. The recently completed study on that first Cosmonautics Day, for example, found several surprising facts about the philatelic activities surrounding the commemorations for the that new holiday. Among those findings are the following:

Findings 1) Official Postal Productions. The Soviet postal organization planned ahead to philatelically commemorate the first anniversary of Gagarin’s spaceflight. These plans included the issue (shown below l-r) of a commemorative stamp; a special, official postmark to be used in many cities across the

USSR; and an artistic, pre-stamped envelope.

2) Government Design Team. The Gagarin anniversary stamp, postmark, and envelope were all designed by the same artistic team who referred to themselves as “Lesegri”. Lesegri is a pseudonymacronym for the three-member design team of B. Lebedev, L. Sergeyev, and M. Grinberg. See a scan of the design team name found on the backs of the Gagarin envelope below. The fact that the same team designed all three of the government commemorative issues is why they all have similar design elements – as shown below left.

3) Multiple Stamp Versions and Issue Dates. The Gagarin anniversary stamp was actually issued in 6 different perforation and label-colour versions. In addition, these stamp versions had at least three different issue dates: 11 April for the imperforate versions, 12 April for the perforated version with the blue label, and 29 April for the perforated version with the violet label.

4) Gagarin-Anniversary Postmark Design Differences.

These postmarks were available in 17 different cities around the USSR. All of these postmarks were similar in design except for the post office name. Although many collectors would understandably recognize the need for that difference in the postmarks’ design, they might not have realized how many other minor design differences there were between these postmarks. Surprisingly, even the postmarks at one of the Soviet post offices had two different designs. That post office was at Riga and these design differences appear to be related to the type of postal stationery they were used to cancel.

5) Collector Club Productions. At least 45 Soviet collector clubs produced club covers commemorating Gagarin’s spaceflight anniversary. Of those clubs, 36 produced their own unique, club-cover, design elements (e.g., envelope cachets, club cachets, overprints, and vignettes) to help create special, commemorative club covers. See Table 1 for a tally of these design elements sorted by collector club and design-element-type.

6) Collector Club Production Milestones. Not only was the commemoration of Gagarin’s spaceflight anniversary a significant space event for Soviet collector clubs to observe, it was also a significant milestone for at least 14 of those clubs. This was because these Gagarin covers were those clubs’ first attempt at creating club covers dedicated solely to a space event. One of these clubs, i.e., the one at Arkhangelsk, went on to become the second most prodigious producer of space-related club covers despite the fact that they didn’t start until April 1962.

7) Collector Club Crossover Productions. Some collector club crossover usage was seen. For example, unique

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artistic envelopes designed by the club at Riga to commemorate Gagarin’s spaceflight anniversary, were seen postmarked at Minsk. In addition, the club at Vilnius used the club cachet design produced by the club at Siauliai to make Vilnius’ envelope cachets.

8) Restricted Postmark Ink-Colour Usage at Kiev. Although two ink colours (i.e., black and red) were officially authorized for use at the Kiev post office for canceling covers with the special, Gagarin-spaceflight-anniversary postmark, the red ink version was only allowed to be used during a two hour period on 12 April 1962. These hours were the exact, one-year-anniversary hours, i.e., 9 to 11 am, during which Gagarin’s spaceflight took place. During the rest of the day, the Kiev post office only used black ink to apply their Gagarin-anniversary commemorative postmark.

9) Few Official Philatelic Commemorations for Cosmonautics Day 1962.

Not only did the Soviet government announce the creation of the new Cosmonautics Day holiday at almost the last moment, but they also almost totally failed to provide any government philatelic items (e.g., stamps, postmarks, or artistic envelopes) that commemorated that significant space event. It would seem that the least they could have done was overprint the Gagarin-anniversary stamps but they did not.

Only the collectors in the Moscow area had access to an official postmark commemorating Cosmonautics Day, as shown.

10) Moscow Cosmonautics Day Postmark Color Variations.

Most catalogues say that the Moscow Cosmonautics Day official postmark was applied in either of two ink colors: black or red. Many collectors will be surprised to know that only the red-ink versions are official.

Even more surprising is the fact that there are two different red-ink colours (a dark red and a raspberry, almost pinkishred) and that each of those red-colour variations were only authorized for two specific uses: a) the dark red colour for club covers produced by the Moscow collector club and b) the pinkish-red postmarks for everyone else’s covers cancelled at the main Moscow post office.

Of course, this official designation of ink colour usages did not stop some individual collectors and organizations from getting unauthorized, favour cancels using black ink. For example, a few Moscow collector club covers and many of the FDCs produced by the government organization Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga were seen with black-ink versions of this Cosmonautics Day cancel.

11) Collector Club Philatelic Response to New Cosmonautics Day Holiday. Despite the late government announcement about the new Cosmonautics Day holiday

and the lack of government philatelic items to commemorate that event, 13 collector clubs produced club covers commemorating the new Cosmonautics Day holiday.

See Table 1 for a tally of these clubs. About a third of these club covers were merely Gagarin-spaceflight-anniversary covers with an extra overprint to mention the coinciding Cosmonautics Day event (see a typical overprint below) but others were more elaborate. See the example club scans accompanying this article.

“Day of Cosmonautics” Overprint Used by Kuibyshev Collector Club

In what may be one extreme case, the club at Krasnodar appears to have modified the graphic part of one of their club-designed, artistic envelopes by breaking off a piece of the envelope-cachet printing plate. See the missing upper-right corner of the envelope cachet shown. Whatever was in the design at that location did not go with the commemoration of Cosmonautics Day so it was physically removed before those envelopes were printed.

Beyond that unusual club cachet, this study uncovered some additional enigmas that exist concerning production facts and covers seen commemorating Gagarin’s spaceflight anniversary and the new Cosmonautics Day. One of these unusual covers can be seen in the club cover shown below.

This cover was never seen franked and postmarked. It was obviously created to commemorate the first Cosmonautics Day but has no production markings on the envelope to indicate who designed it. The most likely guess is that it is a Moscow club prototype production that was never used for some unknown reason.

Conclusion Believe it or not, it has been 50 years since that first Cosmonautics Day! That holiday is still being commemorated annually in Russia with one or more types of philatelic issues each year. The satellites and other cosmonautic achievements being commemorated by these 29

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latest issues may have changed a lot since 1962 but they are still inspiring and challenging to collect - just as they were back in the days of classic Soviet astrophilately.

Astrophilatelists desiring a more in-depth description of the Soviet April 1962 philatelic commemorations of Gagarin’s first spaceflight anniversary and the first Cosmonautics Day will find plenty of detail along with lots of illustrations in my Philatelic Study Report 2012-1, Soviet Space Covers Related to the First Cosmonautics Day. Printed versions of this 160 page book should be available soon on my publisher’s web site at: http://www.americanastrophilately.com/Reichman.html

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Can you Help ?

Jim is still looking for the wording of the declaration that established the first Cosmonautics Day. From that wording, he hopes to get some sense of what aspects of cosmonautics they were commemorating and perhaps some words on the justification for setting aside 12 April rather than, let's say, 4 October as the day to commemorate the holiday. The fact that they used 12 April, implies to some degree that they wanted to emphasize the manned spaceflight aspect of cosmonautics. This tended to throw some people off, e.g., the Winick catalogue which called all of the Cosmonautics Day issues Cosmonauts (sic) Day.

To date he has accepted the definition of the word "Cosmonautics" in the Soviet Encyclopedia of Space Flight and "presumed" that the Supreme Soviet declaration intended that as what was to be commemorated on Cosmonautics Day. Do any of our readers have further info that could help him‌. He can be contacted at jgreichman@datawest.net

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CAT and the MRI scan developed by NASA for early detection of irregularities in materials and parts but today used for the detection of tumours etc. Invisible braces are made from nearly invisible translucent ceramic materials, a spin-off of NASA’s advanced ceramic research to develop new, tough materials for spacecraft .

Also kidney dialysis is strongly supported by NASA developments as well as the physiotherapy with new apparatus to improve physical skills.

Such apparatuses also helped top players to improve their results. For patients sensitive to UV radiation special clothing has been developed based upon the clothing astronauts have to wear outside their capsule in space. As a result of the development of telemetric systems by which astronauts and spaceships were investigated, a pacemaker to operate at a distance and special apparatus to serve at intensive care has been developed.

I do not think that the development in cleaning water and process water can be considered as a medical improvement, but it is a fact that improvements in this field now are common standard in water purifying installations and were originally only used in space operations.

Finally NASA published a list of over 1400 partly patented inventions done for space development but ended in common use by mankind. Most of them are technological developments on areas beyond our scope of view, but by which directly or indirectly we take advantage of.

(6. Echo, USA, 1960, WB 3,balloon made of metallized Mylar foil) An important development is the vacuum metallization of materials, first manufactured as a lightweight insulation for apparatuses but today to be found everywhere in our society. For instance you may think of the metallized sheets used when people are treated in super-cooled circumstances or runners after marathons.

Indeed, the use of lightweight materials is largely improved by their first use in spacecraft with their continuous need for lighter and stronger materials. And the development of solar cells, without their use in space their development would not have been so quick.

(7. Satellite station, Zaïre, 1983, WB 6) It is obvious that our modern means of communication could not have taken place without the development of space technologies and the satellites in space. As everybody knows that present weather predictions are done with the help of satellites. And what do you think of all experiments carried out in space under weightless conditions which could not have been done on earth because of its gravity ? As such, a kind of synthetic soil has been developed in which plants could grow in very earth-unfriendly circumstances. Such zeolite based soil nowadays can be used everywhere on earth where a natural environment is not present or of too poor quality.

ASTEROIDS Some Bits and Pieces

Apollo XI Insurance Covers etc In a response to the article in our January edition, held over through lack of space in March our Australia based member Ross J. Smith offers some follow up comments on topics in the issue….

“Another great effort. I especially liked the Apollo 11 Insurance Covers article. An article on the Insurance covers from the other missions would be an interesting follow up. Also some nice Mercury 6 stamps, several I haven't seen before. Keep your eyes open for a major issue of Astrophile on the mission. It will be a bumper issue with a major article on the rescue effort including some little known facts. Did you know that any one of three ships could have be made the designated Primary Recovery Ship with a decision only made just before the actual mission. To see why, you'll need to wait for the issue.

“Now for a couple of corrections. On page 3 you mention that the recovery forces involved 224 ships etc. Good grief! That would have meant most of the US Navy and half the US Coast Guard was involved. It should be 24 ships. Secondly, on page 26 'Little Known Apollo Flights', John Beenen mentions Apollo 2 & 3. This is incorrect and just adds to an already confusing numbering system. There was no Apollo 2 or 3 as clearly stated on a number of occasions by NASA. The press often referred to AS-202 and AS-203 as Apollo 2 & 3 but as I mentioned, that's incorrect. The earlier flights should only be referred to as SA-2 and SA-3 as John also mentions. Therefore the sequence of Apollo flights is SA-1 through SA-10 plus some pad abort tests and PA-1 & 2, then AS-201, As-203, AS-202, Apollo 1 (AS204), Apollo 4 (AS-501) and then the rest of the Apollos. To add to the confusion Apollo 5 was designated AS-204 because the booster from Apollo 1 was reused for Apollo 5. No wonder people get confused !”

R.J.S. 16.12.11

Christer Fuglesang exhibit Our Sweden based former member Lennart Weirell writes to tells us that he has a small exhibit about the Swedish Astronaut Christer Fuglesang and the Swedish stamp issue Travel in Space (2009). It is in Swedish and you can find it on the netex.se website which the premier Swedish website for exhibitions. The address to my exhibit is: http://www.netex.se/salong/WgcVars/16.christer-fuglesangsveriges-foerste-astrona.html

Bert Liked #93 Bert Van Eijck writes from the Netherlands, “On this quiet Easter morning with rain drops falling from heaven, I just finished reading the last Orbit, issue 93, March 2012. What a very interesting magazine it is! Two pieces I like the most: "Private mail companies" from Jurgen Esders and "Tartu Club Space Covers" from Jim Reichman.

To be concluded in our next issue 32

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From Magnet to Multi-Media John Beenen concludes his epic history of telecommunications …….

LARGE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS IRIDIUM An alternative (to using geostationary orbit) way of communication in space is the launching of a larger number of satellites in a much lower orbit (150 km), ‘Low Earth Orbit’, in short LEO. In those cases the cost of a satellite is considerably lower and also the power of the signal can be lower too. In practice two systems are in use, one working on a continuous transfer of the signal from one satellite to another and the one which stores the signal temporarily releases it when it comes in reach of the ground station. As such, a couple of systems have been developed of which the system of 66 satellites of Motorola, named ‘IRIDIUM’ is the most wellknown. The name Iridium was chosen because it was the 77th element of our periodic system of elements and the system was originally planned to have 77 satellites. So really perhaps the system should have been named Dysprosium, element 66 !!

Additionally other companies continued their activities under slightly changed names. A somewhat older system is PANAMSAT (or PAS), via which on August 15th, 1988 the first satellite was launched. Panamsat was founded in 1984 and in 1996 merged with Hughes Galaxy, resulting in the names of the satellites being change. Today 10 Panamsats and 18 Galaxys are in space.

THURAYA (Thuraya, UAR 2003) A relatively new system is THURAYA a provider which is directed mainly at Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.

The Company has its basis in Abu Dhabi, UAE, their first satellite being launched on October 21st, 2000. At this moment the company owns two satellites and a tracking station in Sharjah. Their satellites are launched via a Ukrainian Zenith 3SL rocket from the Odyssey Platform which is positioned at the equator in the middle of the Pacific at Kiritimati (Christmas Islands, 0°00’N, 154°00’W). It is interesting to note that already by the 50’s Wernher von Braun had proposed this position as an ideal launch-site for space rockets. The platform is owned by Boeing Sea Launch.

(Iridium-project, Madagascar) The 66 LEO satellites cover the whole globe. The system began operating on November 1st, 1988 but went bankrupt in less than one year because of service problems, lack of customers, too large telephones and too high prices.

Also similar systems such as ORBCOMM with 30 LEOsatellites, ICO-GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS with 10 mediumorbit (MEO) satellites and GLOBALSTAR with 48 LEO satellites, followed the Iridium debacle in bankruptcies. A new system TELEDESIC was seriously delayed because of these developments. Teledesic is a very ambitious system with 840 (sic) satellites orbiting at altitudes of 700 km! Later this amount was reduced to the still rather respectable amount of 288 at 1400 km. In the meantime these numbers have been cut to a more realistic dozen and after the first cycle, another 18, but Teledesic it still not operational.

(The 66 Iridium satellites remained in space and were marketed again in 2001 by the privately owned company: Satellite LLC).

Sometimes there are relatively light-weight satellites of about 50 kg, which are launched in clusters. In the case of Globalstar this was most unfortunate as at launch on September 9th, 1998 all 12 satellites were lost.

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GALILEO (Giove A French cover 2005). The European Galileo system is constructed as an alternative to the American GPS and the Russian Glonass system. It is intended for improved precision for determination of position and serving areas at higher latitudes.

The official start of Galileo by the EC and ESA was on May 26th, 2003. The system is principally meant for private use in contrast with the American system which principally is meant for the military. Galileo will consist of 30 satellites with a weight of 675 kg, orbiting at an altitude of 23.222 km (MEO) in three orbits of 9 satellites and one active spare in each orbit.

The first satellite of this system, GIOVE-A, was launched on December 28th 2005 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

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(Cospas-Sarsat, Soviet Union 1987, WB 530) On May 6th 1977 the United States and the Soviet Union signed the treaty COSPAS-SARSAT for an international system for the receivers of distress signals.

GLONASS (Cover, Russia 2005) We already mentioned the Russian system for positioning called GLONASS (ГЛОНАСС). Under the right conditions this system gives an accuracy of about 70 metres. The system accounts for 24 satellites of which 3 are backups. As with Galileo, these circle in three orbits differing 120° each. Glonass orbits in a somewhat lower altitude, 19.100 km. One orbit lasts about 11 hours and 15 minutes.

The first test satellites were already launched in 1982 and the first two operational, Glonass 14L and 15L on December 29th 1983. At 1250 kg they are considerable heavier than Giove. A characteristic of its orbit is that it returns every eight days. 12 satellites have been launched so far, thus, the system still is under construction.

RUSSIAN COMMUNICATION SATELLITES (Molniya, Sovjet Union 1966, WB 206 ; Molniya 3, Russia 1993) In the sixties the Soviets developed their own communication system named: MOLNIYA (МОЛНИЯ meaning “lightning”).

Their first satellite was sent up on April 23rd 1965, just between the launchings of Intelsat 1 and 2.

As large parts of the Soviet Union are situated at high latitudes a geostationary orbit was less favourable, thus, a very eccentric orbit of about 400-40.000 km was chosen. By this clever system the Soviet area in particular was covered very well. The satellite orbits around the earth in 12 hours in such a way that it can be active above the Soviet Union for 16 hours, but stays in the southern hemisphere only for a couple of hours. Such an orbit also is called: ‘High Elliptical orbit’ (HEO), of more popular a ‘Tundra orbit’.

About 1960 the Soviet Union also developed a satellite system for military communication, STRELA (СТРЕЛА meaning “arrow”). Between 1964 and 1965 26 such satellites were launched, in the first half of the seventies replaced by Strela 1M satellites.

COSPAS is an acronym for Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov “Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress”.

SARSAT: Search and Rescue Satellite – Aided Tracking The “Memorandum of Agreement’, by which the system could be implemented was signed on November 23rd , 1979 by the USA, USSR, Canada and France. The receivers were placed on satellites below 1000 km and proved to have an accuracy of some kilometres.

20 of them were placed on the maritime TSIKADA navigation satellites, of which Kosmos 1383 on June 30th 1982 was the first. The system later known as NADEZHDA (“hope”), is claimed to have saved lives of hundreds of seamen by careful and positional signalling.

In order to have a national system of direct-home television a geostationary system also developed called STATIONAR (СТАЧОНАР).

The INTERKOSMOS programme (ΗИНТЕРКОСМОС) was a cooperative programme between different Soviet countries and covered developments in many areas the participating countries themselves being responsible for their programmes.

(Orbita, Soviet Union 1968, WB 238)

The first geostationary satellites of the Soviet Union were called RADUGA (РАДУГА). The first one from a series of 36 with a weight of 2000 kg was launched on December 22 nd 1975. Raduga satellites were firstly meant for military purposes, but also for the construction of a television system within the project ‘ORBITA’ (ОРБИТА). They also deliver communication possibilities in Eastern Siberia. The Raduga project was directed by the bureau NPO PM in the

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Siberian town of Zheleznogorsk. The Radugas operate only in the C-band of 3,45-3,95 GHz and in the first place are meant for voice communication.

(Ekran-Statsionar, Soviet Union 1981, WB 438) Within the Statsionar system we know of a second series of geosynchronous satellites named EKRAN (ЗКРАН), the first of which was launched on October 26th, 1976. The design of this satellite was relatively dangerous as for the last stage a combination of fluorine/ amine was proposed. Moreover, the satellite itself was to be provided with a 5kW nuclear reactor. Both propositions finally were rejected and the energy was supplied by 1280 W solar cells. Every satellite was suitable for one TV channel and two radio channels for cable TV systems and individual receivers in northern Siberia. They operated in the UHFregion.

For communication with manned spacecraft the Soviets developed the SDRN (Satellite Data Relay Network, comparable with the American TDRSS (Tracking and Relay Satellite System) and uses a.o. the LUTSJ ((ЛУЧ, ray) or ALTAIR satellites launched between 1985 and 1989 and also known as: Cosmos 1700, 1897 and 2054.

The Ekran-system has since been replaced by more modern systems such as: Gorizont (ГОРИЗОНТ), Gals (ГАЛС, tack), and Express (ЗКСПРЕСС) as seen here l-r on Russia 1993….

The Russians have designed a great many other projects such as: Arkos, Gelikon, Romantis, Zerkalo and Kondor, of which some have been cancelled through lack of resources.

EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION SATELLITES

SYMPHONIE (GBR 19 75, WB 5) With SYMPHONIE A (19-12-74) and B (27-8-75) the first European communication satellites appeared in space. At first these satellites were maintained by France and Germany alone but later two large organizations regulated telecommunication in Europe by satellite: SES Global with SES Astra in Europe and SES Americom in the USA and Eutelsat.

SES Astra (Astra, Luxembourg 1989, WB 2) With the launching of the first Astra satellite, 1A, on December 11th, 1988, SES (Société Européenne des Satellites-Astra) became the first private enterprise in Europe with a satellite in space. The organization had been founded in 1985 and has its base in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Their first customer was Sky Television. Besides Astra SES has also an interest in Asiasat and Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB, Star One).

With Gilat Satellite Networks and Alcatel Space/Skybridge they form the group SATLYNX.

GORIZONT is a system mainly for civil and international communication and in use since 1979. The first Gorizont satellite was launched on December 19th, 1978 and had a weight of 2100 kg. Around 45 satellites were positioned in a geosynchronous orbit, thus meant for the transmittance of TV signals in the five most important time zones of the Soviet Union and Russia. Their signals are processed by the Orbita and Moscva ground stations.

In 2004 SES started the first HDTV channel (Euro 1080). With 176 transponders SES controls about 1100 analogue and digital TV and radio channels. They supply direct to home television and serve more than 100 million households. For The Netherlands and Belgium the satellite position of Astra 1 is 19,2°E, 29° above the horizon, for England Astra 2 orbits at 28°E. Until now 16 satellites have been launched and 1A and 1B are suspended.

The next generation Russian geo-satellites, GALS, appeared with the launch of the Gals-1L on January 20th, 1994, on October 13th followed by the EXPRESS-1L. They are also mainly meant for the relay of TV signals. The satellite is equipped with 9 C-band, 18 Ku-band and 1 L-band transponders. The SESAT (Siberia-Europe Satellite) also belongs to these classes. Weighing 2500 kg they are relatively heavy again.

Eutelsat SA (Hotbird Eutelsat, Monaco 1985, WB 53) The other well-known satellite provider is Eutelsat SA, based in Paris .

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At the time of writing Eutelsat controls 2100 TV stations and 970 radio stations with cable and satellite connections. Their satellites work from four positions: 7, 10, 13 and 16°E. Their satellites have names such as: HOT BIRD, EUROBIRD, ATLANTIC BIRD and just W-1, W2 etc.

the launch of WESTAR 1 owned by Western Union, a financial and communication company founded in 1851 a.o. responsible for the introduction of the stock ticker in 1866, the standardized time service in 1870, the telegraphic money transfer, the charge card and other novelties.

They further hire satellite frequencies from others such as: Telekom, Telstar and the Russian Ekspress.

Eutelsat (European Telecommunications Satellite Organization) originally was founded as an inter-governmental organisation for communication satellites in 1977.

Their first satellite EUTELSAT/ECS 1 was launched on June 6th, 1983. Since than a rapid development followed and today nearly the whole globe is covered. Particularly with HOT BIRDs Eutelsat was the first supplier in Europe of direct to home television. In June 2001 Eutelsat became a private owned company, since rebranded as 2005 Eutelsat Communications.

COMMUNICATION SATELLITES OF OTHER COUNTRIES (Courier 1B, Comores 1976, WB 50) 1. UNITED STATES The first country launching a comsat for two-way communication was The USA with its COURIER 1B on 4-10-1960. This and subsequent satellites were launched by the American government.

America entered the commercial path on April 13th 1974 with 36

(Strela-A, Russia 2004) 2. SOVIET UNION On a governmental basis the Soviet Union followed with their communication satellite for military purposes STRELA-1 (18-6-64). Its true that the first Sputnik had already broadcast beeps, but this was not a real two-way communication.

3. CHINA With the launch of the DONGFANGHONG-1 (DFH-1 or Mao1) on January 24th 1970 China became the third nation to bring a real communication satellite into space. Dong Fang Hong shown on cover opposite top means: ‘The East is Red’.

ORBIT

In 1978 the ANIK-B became the first satellite working in the classic C-band as well in the newer Ku-band. That Canada was rather progressive In terms of communication in space was also a result of the fact that Canada possesses rather extensive distant areas.

In the meantime Canada has a large network of Anik satellites. Some later versions also are known as NIMIQ (1999), the first Canadian satellite for direct to home TV and MSAT (1996) for mobile communication.

Its weight at 173 kg was not that great and also its orbit of 434/2.162 km less than geocentric, but that was also the case with many of its predecessors from other countries.

Still it lasted a couple of years before China developed its own communication system. Until that time the Chinese communication used Intelsat and Intersputnik facilities.

The first geocentric satellite, the military test satellite STTW T -2 (DFH-15) was launched on April 8th 1984. Only on March 7th 1988 with the positioning of the DFH-2A-1 (Dongfanghong -22, later CHINASAT 1) in its geocentric orbit did China really enter the communication era. That satellite had 4 C-band transponders and could manage 3000 telephone calls or four TV-channels. Since 1995 with their Chinasat-5 (Zhongxing-5), originally the Spacenet-1 of GTE, China has entered the commercial market. With their Long March rockets (ChangZeng) they also launch satellites of other countries on a commercial basis.

5. EUROPE (OTS-1 (mislabelling: should be OTS-2,USA 1978) Europe followed with both their German-French satellites, SYMPHONIE (19-12-1974, 27-8-1975). But the development after that went on rather slowly and it lasted until 1978 when the OTS (Orbiting Test Satellite) could be launched.

That it lasted that long was mainly caused by the fact that many countries were involved in the decision making within ELDO or ESRO and everyone had its own interests and opinions.

In 1983 followed the ECS (European Communication Satellite), but at the moment of its launch for instance already six Intelsat satellites were operational. Finally everything went smoothly with the founding of Eutelsat in 1977 and the chain of Astra satellites by SES Astra.

6. INDONESIA (Palapa, Indonesia 1976, WB 15)

4. CANADA (Anik B, Telesat 9, VS 1978, WB 46) The first civil communication satellite was launched by Telesat Canada (09-11-1972: ANIK 1), and became the fourth country with a communication satellite in space. Anik means ‘little brother’ in the Eskimo language Inuit. By the way, Canada entered space already somewhat earlier on September 29th when ALOUETTE-1 was launched from the American Vandenberg base. However, this satellite was not a communication satellite but meant for study of the upper layers of our atmosphere. Since 1979 Canada has also been a forerunner with their cooperation in the SARSAT project.

A surprise is Indonesia as the sixth country possessing its own communication satellite. This had something to do with the personal interest of one of the leaders at that time, but anyhow, on July 8th 1976, the PALAPA 1A became the first Indonesian satellite in space.

Palapa means ‘fruit of labour’. In the beginning the Palapa satellites were owned by Perumtel but today the company is called Satelindo. With exception of Palapa 2B which is a LEO -satellite all Palapas are geo-stationary satellites. The Palapa 2B was launched on April 2nd 1984 by STS 41B (10) but did not reach its orbit. But the satellite was saved by STS 51 A together with the also failed Westar 6. After the conclusion of all insurance issues and some repairs Palapa 2B was launched again in 1990.

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7. ITALY (Sirio-1, Ajman 1968, WB 54) The seventh country with its own communication satellite was Italy with its geo-synchronous SIRIO A launched on August 25th 1977. In 1983 the satellite was repositioned to a position above the Indian Ocean within the framework of a joint Italian-Chinese project. It was switched off in 1985. SIRIO-2 (9 -9-1982) was already a project of ESA, in 1975 merged from ELDO and ESRO. With ITALSAT and the LEO micro-satellite, TEMISAT, Italy also has some more modern satellites. In 1993 they launched also a 10 kg satellite, ITAMSAT, also known as Oscar 26, for amateur radio use.

8. JAPAN (ECS-1/Ayama 3, Japan 1989) It was clear that Japan would be an early competitor in the communication race. Its experimental geo-satellite CS-1/ SAKURA (sakura = “cherry tree”) was launched on December 15th 1977. However, The real commercial communication satellites followed in 1979 (ECS-1 and 1B/Ayame), but both failed. Since then Japan has developed into one of the leading countries in communication. From 2003 JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) covers the research, development and launch of all Japanese satellites.

9. INDIA (Apple, India 1982, WB 11) On June 19th 1981 India joined the countries possessing an own communication satellite with the launch of INSAT-1, also called APPLE. Between 1982 and 1990 they launched several more Insats but Insat 1A and AC failed at launch, though 1B and 1D worked well.

Since 1983 R&D was done to develop a new generation of Insats especially for educational purposes which started in 1992. Since 2000 the Insat 3 series have been in orbit for TV, telecommunication, meteorology and rescue work. Insat-4 is meant for direct to home TV. Moreover, India cooperates in the ASC (Afro-Asian Satellite Communication), a project of two satellites (Agrani) for mobile telephony.

10. SAUDI-ARABIA (Arabsat 1A, SaudiArabia 1985, WB 6) The Arab Satellite Communication Organization was founded in 1976. It asked the French company Aerospatiale to develop their first three communication satellites and asked NASA to launch them.

ARABSAT 1A was launched on February 8th 1985 by an Ariane rocket from the ESA base in Kourou, French Guyana thus not by NASA. The second Arabsat (1B) followed soon after (18-06-85) by the Shuttle STS 51G Discovery. That’s why this flight also had a Saudi-Arabian on board, Sultan Salman Al Saud. In the same flight Morelos-A was put into space for Mexico. Arabsat 1D was in fact a leased Canadian Anik D-2.

In 1996 the first satellite of the second generation started and Saudi-Arabia joined the Thuraya project. Their third generation of satellites started in 1999 named BADR-3.

11. BRAZIL (Brasilsat B-1, France 1994) With the launching of BRASILSAT-1 on February 8th 1985 Brazil became the eleventh country with a communication satellite. In the meantime the Brazilian fleet has been expanded to a network of five geo-satellites. The fleet is managed by the Brazilian company Embratel and SES-Astra under the name Star One which in turn works together with some other companies.

Besides that in the recent history (2004) some satellites have been launched serving the South-American market such as the Spanish AMAZONAS and the ESTRELA DO SUL of the Brazilian Loral Skynet. This company also bought the Anik C1 of Telesat Canada and renamed it BRAZIL 1.

Sponsored by INPE (National Institute of Space Research) there exists intentions for a system of 8 LEO-satellites (ECO8) for educational purposes..

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ORBIT

Morelos-1, Mexico 1985, WB 15,16,17) 12. MEXICO As mentioned above, the launching of the first Mexican satellite coincided with the launch of the second Arabian communication satellite, Arabsat 1B on June 18th 1985. Both were put into space by STS 51 G Discovery. Also the second Mexican satellite became space-borne via na shuttle mission STS, 61 On that occasion the first Mexican astronaut, Rodolfo Neri Vela, was part of the crew. Subsequent satellites parted under the calls: SOLIDARIDAD en SATMEX. (Hispasat 1A, France 1992 Turksat 1B, France 1994)

13. AUSTRALIA (Aussat 1, Australia 1986, WB 6 Aussat 2, Australia 1986, WB 7) With Australia only at twelfth place concerning the launch of communication satellites, the country does not receive completely the recognition they deserve. As the third country in the world on November 29th 1967 they had launched the WRESAT-1. However, this satellite was not meant for communication but for the study of the upper layers of the atmosphere . Their first comsat, AUSSAT A1, or OPTUS A1 was launched into space on August 27th 1985 via STS 51 I together with the American ASC-1.

Aussat A2 was also carried by a shuttle (STS 61 B) together with the Mexican Morelos B. Three A-class satellites were put into space. In the meantime improved types became active with only A3, B1, B3, C1 and D1 still working. On December 14th 2002 the FedSat-1 was launched but for scientific purposes only.

In addition to these first thirteen countries further many other countries (or groups thereof) have put their own satellites into space such as: Scandinavia (1989, Sirius), Pakistan (1990, BADR), Spain (1992, Hispasat), Greece (1992, Hellassat), Thailand (1993, Thaicom), Turkey (1994, Turksat), Hongkong (1994, AP-Star), South-Korea (1995, Koreasat), Israel (1996, AMOS), Argentina (1997, Nahuel), Philippines (1997, Mabuhay), Taiwan (1999, Formosat), Kazakhstan (2006, Kazsat) and since then certainly others have followed.

All these satellites have their own specific position in space.

If you want to know more about these satellites and the programmes they offer than I advise you to buy the ‘Hopper Guide’ (Beteapress) which shows you a rich survey of all programmes in all languages satellite communication has to offer.

CONCLUSION We now have reached the end of our series of articles about the history of telecommunication in all its aspects. Although much of the information had only little to do with space travel I really do hope that you read it with great interest.

Telecommunication develops continuously and at an ever increasing speed especially by the contribution through satellites. In the meantime it became a billion dollar business and you may expect it to stay that way in future.

As for us our hobby is the most important so I put more effort in this last part. By checking most of the data I tried to avoid errors, but two or more sources were not always available and often there were quotations leading all to the same source. Moreover, not all sources gave the same data.

Inevctably, in a study of this size it is practically unavoidable that some errors have occurred. I hope you will forgive me those and you will inform me so that I can make a note and report back: my email address is: johnbeenen@planet.nl.

The Netherlands, Hoorn, February 2007 (An extensive bibliography can also be obtained from John for which there is no room in this issue).

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Paisley Rocketeer Covers Celebrating Space Heroes

Many of the Aquajets were made from Fairy Liquid (washing detergent) bottles, suitably reinforced. However A-14 was of a very different type. This slender javelin-like rocket was six feet long and achieved a new range record of 433 feet. It was launched twenty-seven times but the final landing broke the rear tube.

A commemorative flown “flimsy� was produced in honour of the Tenth Anniversary of the First Manned Spaceflight. A hundred covers were packed into a polythene mail container, protected by a shock absorbing nosecone To honour the Apollo 17 mission a souvenir cover was posted on the date of launch and flown in A-32 immediately on splashdown. The covers were decorated with a label designed by John Stewart.

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